Fallout: the Empire
by Firebird3127
Summary: After Vault 76 is invaded and destroyed, two survivors emerge into the ruins of The Big Apple.
1. Chapter 1

_ War. War never changes. Since the dawn of humankind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything: From god, to justice, to simple psychotic rage. In the year 2077, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation. But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world, but war, war never changes._

_ In the early days, thousands were spared the horrors of the holocaust in enormous underground shelters, known as vaults. But when they emerged, they had only the hell of the wastes to greet them. Raiders roamed the blasted countryside, killing, raping, stealing everything that they could get their hands on. Once benign creatures, such as ants and geckos have been morphed by exposure to radiation and FEV into hellish monstrosities that eat corpses and spit fire. Super mutants, hulking horrors gifted with the strength of many men, armored hides, and resistance to radiation, loot and pillage for breakfast, and smash entire settlements single-handed before lunching on the slain. Swift death at their hands is far preferable to being taken alive. _

_ Desertification has claimed what were once beautiful forests and valleys, rendering them desolate wastelands, and the lakes and streams stagnant cesspools of filth holding still more sinister and deadly monsters, and the sunken remains of the hopes and dreams of society. The landscape is littered with the gutted and shattered hulks of once grand buildings, monuments to greed, the lust for power, and the hubris of man. _

_ The year is now 2289, and a new conflict is about to begin. The raider gangs of The Big Apple vie for control of the region with The Empire, a militant fascist regime that seeks control by force of arms, secret police, and restrictions on basic freedoms of it's citizens. The gangs would have total anarchy and the law of the gun reign supreme, but struggling survivors just trying to make it day to day flock to the protection that The Empire, with it's enforcers, The Long Gray Line, have thus far been able to provide. Unbeknownst to either faction, advance scouts of another group, clad in red and black power armor and wielding energy weapons of enormous power while commanding large armies of reprogrammed military robots, have crested the hills outlying the city and are radioing in for reinforcements to secure their new found prize._

_ Man will always seek glory, riches, power, and dominion. Because war, war never changes..._


	2. Chapter 2

August 2nd, 2289. 0923, Vault Standard Time

Red light bars set into the walls flashed on an instant before "Security report to the Engineering Level, Security report to the Engineering Level" crackled over the mini speaker on Jason Farnan's pip boy. Dammit he cursed, exhaling a cloud of smoke and laying his cards on the cigar lounge's small table. 'Read 'em and weep, boys and girls' was on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it and drew his N99, racking the slide while everyone in the room did the same. Many of those who unceremoniously dumped their cards let out small sighs of relief that they were not made to play out their hand. "Lock and load" he shouted, all business, as the team swept down the corridors to the central elevators, pistols raised to high carry. "A security alert, in a vault" questioned several of the startled civilians, as they grabbed whatever they were doing and moved, or failing that, dove out of the way of the heavy booted footsteps and the glint of deadly steel barreling down the corridor. Several vault dwellers asked what the problem is, but the few vault security officers who hesitated for a second to respond answered truthfully "I don't know sir" or "I'll handle it, ma'am" as they sprinted by. Reaching the engineering level, Farnan registered the pop pop pow of untrained pistol fire, an insect-like chittering noise, and several shouts of "Get it off the power lines" as well as a slight hiss of decompression. Shorting electrical cables, the bleeping of a frenzied reactor control computer cabinet, and a choking screen of cordite assaulted his senses as he rounded the corner. A horde of two foot long cockroaches poured in from a roughly chewed hole in the rock wall, leaving a path of devastation, sparking and shorting out electronics, and remains of massacred operators whose only combat experience was in line at the chow hall. "Alright people" Farnan said to his squad, looking over the (mostly) composed men and women who moments before were handing him their life savings in work credits, "you know the drill. If it wasn't born here, it dies here. Let's try to avoid anything or anyone in the room with lead allergies, but other than that clear to engage, hooah?" After a chorus in the affirmative, the officers charged into the fray, guns spitting violent death at their foes.  
>"Computer specialist Torelli, report to action station" screamed Nadine's pip boy, jolting her out of an uneasy sleep. She pulled on her vault coveralls, grabbed her tool box from under her bunk, and slapped the door control open before sprinting out into the hall, her tangled black hair trailing untouched behind her. This better be important she thinks to herself, checking the time on her pip boy's heads up display for the first time since the alert. Scratch that, this had better be really fucking important. The clock was too painful to look at, so she returned it to the default display setting. She wasn't due back to work for another half a shift. As her level of consciousness continued to rise, she started thinking about what would have made the Overseer wake her up this early, and didn't like any of the possibilities. "They better not have messed up my mainframe" she shouted, balling her fists and raging at nobody in particular. Several scared vault dwellers who happened to be in the corridor retreated back a few steps. Reaching the main elevator, she pressed the call button several times, and swore to herself that every time she pushed the button the elevator moved slightly slower. When the car arrived, she bumped another person out of the way and charged in, flashing her 'don't mess with me' glare and stabbed her finger into the button for the middle level. A small child who happened to be trying to board the car shrieked in fright and jumped behind his mother, saying "she's scary, mommy." Scary, but also scary effective the woman mused. I guess now we know what happens when you get too many electrical shocks from fucking the mainframe instead of doing your duty to the vault and having children. "So sorry we can't all become baby factories like you" Nadine called out as the elevator door started to close. "Some of us do our duty to the future of humanity with something long and hard that isn't attached to a man." Stung by the remark, she pulled her son closer to her and downgraded her opinion of Nadine to just plain scary.<br>Farnan raised his fist and the squad stopped what they are doing and fell in behind him. He pulled a grenade out of a pouch on his belt, rolled it into a small dark tunnel, and shouted "fire in the hole" before sticking his fingers in his ears and sprinting away from the hole that until recently was vomiting forth a small army of rad roaches. The blast was muffled by the intervening rock, but did result in a satisfying avalanche of chips and rubble that effectively closed the breach. "Not as good as new, but it'll have to do" quipped some would be trench poet as the others rolled their eyes and let out a huge collective sigh, both of relief to be alive and at the corny joke. They had just survived the first real action in vault history and came out of it more or less intact. The mop up operation proceeded quickly, as the guards moved through the work spaces and overturned tables, chairs, and computer equipment. The dead were identified, the living evacuated to the med center, and a final round put through any bits of bug that were still moving. Farnan twirled his pistol on his finger, and blew the remaining smoke off the end of the barrel before engaging the safety and clicking it back into his holster. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do that. Let's get an ammo count, status checks, and someone to shut that god damn siren off." Murmurs of assent were heard throughout the squad.  
>"Morning sunshine" called out the other mainframe tech in the Vault Information Center as Nadine burst breathlessly through the door of the Vault Information Center. For half a second she considered that a murder charge was not treated as harshly and did not automatically mean the death penalty if it wasn't premeditated, before glancing over at the status board on the opposite wall. Her jaw dropped and the look on her face was an amalgamation of what would happen if someone who permanently canceled Christmas was kicking her puppy and happened to stop by to tell her that the food processors glitched and deleted the Fancy Lads Snack Cakes algorithm. "Mommy's coming" she called out as she rushed up to the main terminal. The glow of the mostly red status board overpowered the overhead lighting fixtures as she set to work. Once inside the network, she swore furiously under her breath, causing the other tech to wince slightly each time another profanity escaped her lips. In the space of minutes, however, many of the red lights had gone out. Not as many were actually green as she would have liked, but things were getting back to the point where automated fail safes could start to effect meaningful change and direct human intervention wasn't as sorely needed. The other tech could only watch in amazement as the entire power distribution network changed shape seemingly by magic before his eyes, much akin to the flipping of the time cards on the schedule board in the videos he had seen of Grand Central Station. Most of the vault dwellers made no secret of how odd they thought Torelli was, some were downright scared of the woman. But his opinion was firmly planted in the worship category. If there was a goddess of the technological universe, she was working her magic on the computer terminal across the room from him. Abruptly she signed off the terminal, closed up the keyboard, and collapsed face down onto the floor next to the mainframe, clearly exhausted and winding down from the adrenaline rush. "Rum and Nuka, hold the Nuka" she mumbled without turning over, snapping her fingers for emphasis. What the hell, she deserves it he thought, and rushed out the door to grant her request. <p>


	3. Chapter 3

Approximately half an hour later, the cafeteria was abuzz with conversation and excitement over the complete success of the vault security forces in defeating the radroach incursion. Party streamers, noisemakers, paper hats, and all sorts of other festive decorations lent their color and sounds to the party atmosphere in the room. The security team were ushered into the largest booth, and waited on by everyone who hadn't already heard the re-telling of the events with their own ears. The cooks had pulled out all the stops for the celebration: fresh bread and even orange juice were pressed on the 'defenders of the vault' until they could eat or drink no more. The overseer walked in with Nadine, who was still holding her pre-war rum bottle from the overseer's private stock, and the crowd hushed a little while glancing furtively in her direction. Not being overly concerned with social graces, she wasn't exactly popular in the vault, but her contribution to saving the day could not be overstated or ignored, so the festivities carried on after the effect of her entrance wore off. "And here's to our unsung hero of the day" Farnan said, stepping out of the booth and putting his arm around Nadine's shoulders. With his free hand he further messed up her hair. Some of the guards swore they saw her eyes glow red and smoke start to curl out of her ears, and started to glance around nervously for available defensive assets. Even the Overseer considered diving for cover, but she simply shrugged and passed him the bottle. The crowd started up a chorus of "For he's a jolly good fellow" and Nadine chose that moment to melt into the background. She never liked crowds, and so had no problem with Jason getting the lion's share of the recognition. I'll get him for that hair bit though, she thought to herself. Just another in the seemingly endless string of pranks the childhood friends had played on each other, she was already plotting what sort of fun she was going to have with his vault network account. Farnan rejoined the guards, and split the bottle among them as evenly as possible. "You've all done very well today" he said as he poured himself the last little bit in the bottle after everyone else was served. As the chorus came around to "which nobody can deny" he toasted the room before downing his shot along with his squad.  
>Several hours later, the vault was bodily shaken and an ear splitting BOOM stopped everyone in their tracks. In a matter of seconds, the power started shutting down in a rolling blackout radiating outward from the engineering level level. The retreating slam, slam, slam of the light fixtures shutting off caused many to jump or gulp each time it repeated. THe mechanical noises of the ventilation system wound down to a stop, and the temperature in the passageways jumped ten degrees in as many seconds. Dust and debris choked the air, and the weak beams of battery powered emergency lighting struggle valiantly to filter down to floor level. Suddenly, the emergency lights started to flash pink and yellow as the power plant alarm started vying for peoples attention over the panic stricken shouting in the rooms and corridors.<br>I must be dreaming, Nadine thought sleepily as she was once again rudely awoken. Recognition of the alarm jolted her upright, and she found herself dressed, holding her toolbox, and sprinting for the admin section before she consciously knew what was happening.  
>Farnan woke with a start when his locker crashed against his bunk, and coughed out dust that until recently composed his ceiling plaster. He wrenched open the locker, buckled on his kit, and charged out the door just as the power plant alarms started blaring. Realizing that the corridor lights were out, he hit the light switch of his pip boy against the side of his helmet and took off at a run towards the overseer's office. Rounding the corner of the corridor, he saw several flashlight beams aimed at a smaller young man, who was being roughly pushed and kicked by three tough looking boys who were a few years older than him. Without thinking, Farnan charged the biggest one and delivered a crippling uppercut, downing his surprised foe without a word. The young man dove behind him, and he finally got a good look at the assailants. Norman Decker, accompanied by his gang, the Labyrinth Rats. "I don't have time for this" Jason said. Return to your quarters and we'll settle this later. I won't repeat myself" he said as his hand went to his police baton. Norman and the other gang member quickly retreated towards the stairs, shouting "you'll regret this" and "some overseer you'll be" over their shoulders. Only then did Farnan realize who he had just saved from a potentially brutal beating; Ian Macgregor, the Overseer's son! He pulled out his key card and handed it to Ian, saying "go wait in my quarters, when this is over I'll show you a few tricks that will make them reconsider picking on you." Ian mumbled his thanks and took off in the opposite direction as fast as his legs could carry him.<br>Nadine and Farnan nearly collided when they emerged from corridors in the opposite directions in front of the Overseer's door. He planted his feet and caught her before she fell, at which point she looked up at him, out of breath, and says "I bet you've wanted to hold me like this for years" with a sly smile. "Guilty, although ideally not under these circumstances" he said, as he pulled the emergency override for the hydraulics to the Overseer's door with his free hand. He set her back on her feet and they both nervously walked into the outer office of the administration wing. Whatever they expected to find when they got to the admin office, it was not what they found. The temperature was at least fifteen degrees higher in the main office than it was even in the corridors. the smell of burned flesh, blood, and the acrid stench of fresh vomit were overpowering. Farnan led the way as the pair rushed to the Overseer's side. The Overseer looked like ten miles of bad road that lost a fight with an irradiated lawnmower. He was sitting in a pile of vomit and splotches of blood, pulling bits of shrapnel out of his skin, and the skin was coming off with it. "Please" he croaked out in an increasingly gravelly sounding voice as more blood and vomit free fell down his chest. "Listen...to...me, I...don't have much time. The damage to the reactor was more severe than initial reports stated. Everyone has performed admirably in their assigned duties. But...there was just too much wrong to prevent a total system failure. This damned Vault Tec crap was" ( he coughs up more blood and bits of organs) "never designed to save anybody. I had engineering doing everything they could to patch things back up, but when you're patching the patched patches there's only so much you can do." A coughing fit seized him at that moment, and the floor in front him was covered in a new layer of vomit, blood, and pieces of skin. "Our uninvited guests severed the power to the coolant pumps and the hydrogen exhaust fans downstairs, and it was a race against time until things started to heat up." He smiled briefly, painfully, at his own joke. Farnan and Nadine didn't laugh. Seeing this, the overseer continued. "As these reports were coming in to me, I received an email from Vault Tec that...per design specifications, the outer door would open by itself today, but the date of the message was for the year 2339. I queried the mainframe about this, and was instructed to ignore the mainframe...power spike readings right before the message was sent." He pulled a chunk of skin off of his left arm, revealing the cooked, but still moving, muscle tissue below, and a piece of shrapnel that was embedded within. The overseer picked it out and tossed it aside. It landed with a clatter that made Nadine wince. "The overseer's instruction manual came up onscreen, with orders to prepare to leave the vault, and let the last remnants of humanity perish. I ran down to the engineering level and ordered Taylor into the reactor pit to attempt a manual shutdown, and all the computers in the room flashed the Vault Tec logo before stating that failure to comply would result in termination of the experiment. All the engineers looked to me, and I shouted 'What are you waiting for, do it.' When they got the door open, our Geiger counters sounded like a ticker tape, and I ran. The door to the engineering space was about halfway closed when the reactor vessel exploded. The lucky ones died in the explosion or of their wounds, but I had the misfortune to...survive, if that's what you call this" he said, indicating his present condition with a sweep of his arm. "My fear of change and the unknown sent good men to their deaths, and has resulted in the" (he hacked out another racking cough, splattering the floor in front of him with still more vomit and blood splotches) "termination of the Vault 76 experiment. I, I've killed us all." Before Farnan or Nadine could react, the Overseer pulled out his N99 and put it in his mouth. The discharge was deafening in such a small space, even for Farnan who was accustomed to gunfire. Nadine's shocked silence and blank look held Farnan captive for a moment, until the radiation alarms and rotating hazard lights pulled him back to reality. He shook Nadine a few times, but she still seemed to be staring off into space with a blank look and gaping mouth. "Nadine, I need you here with me now. Come on, wake up." He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes again, then tried slapping her cheek a few times. "Nadine, come on, we have to go, NOW! Do you know where on the network the door controls are, or where the access to the door is? Come on, network, vault door, lets go" he said, snapping his fingers as he was waving his hands around her head. As soon as he said network, the lights started coming back on behind her eyes. She closed her mouth, and consciousness came back. "I've never tried to figure it out before. It just never seemed that important." "It's important now, unless you want to end up like him" Farnan replied, a little more harshly than necessary. Nadine sat down in front of the Overseer's terminal and got to work. Within seconds, she was inside the overseer's personal files, and downloaded them all to her Pip boy. She found a file marked entrance key codes, and quickly committed them to memory. There was a hiss and a rush of released steam as the overseer's desk raised up into the ceiling, revealing a yawning chasm leading into a dimly reddish lit corridor below. Farnan pocketed the Overseer's N99 and ammo, then grabbed Nadine's hand and led her into the chamber below. It smelled musty and stale, as though unused for centuries, which it was. "I'll bet nobody's been in here since the day the bombs fell" Nadine said. "I wish I could see the looks on the maintenance personnel's faces when I tell them I've been somewhere nobody else alive ever has been before." "That's because there is nobody else alive" Farnan said softly, realizing along with her what that actually meant. They locked gazes for a moment, before Farnan grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the huge gear that served as Vault 76's protector, and enforcer of isolationism for the last two hundred plus years. "We have to get going, or we'll share their fate. We can stay here and die, or we can take our chances out there." "I..." "I'm not staying, and I won't leave you to get liquified by ionizing radiation either, or end up turning into whatever was happening to the Overseer. We're going. Besides, you know the codes to the door." "The code is" Nadine started to say, but Farnan clamped his hand over her mouth and marched her over to the panel. She hunched over the console and started punching in numbers and symbols, then pulled a small lever. Buzzer alarms went off immediately, and the creaking and groaning of ancient metal machinery activating, and bright rotating hazard lights started throwing an eerie glow over the area, compensating for the dim glow from the one remaining overhead bulb that intermittently threw sparks over the area. A hydraulic piston swung towards the door, drilling into the internal mechanism of the twelve ton gear, before hissing, groaning, and with the shriek of metal on metal rolled the ancient gear to the side in a cloud of dust and debris. The buzzers and hazard lights started to sputter and die at this point, trailing off until they were silent and the only light in the room came from a hole in the wooden door at the end of a natural stone tunnel. As the two survivors stepped across the threshold of the track the gear once occupied, their boots crunched on bones and bits of clothing from people who gathered outside the vault begging for admission once the missile sirens went off that fateful day in October of 2077. 'Let us in you bastards', 'you're killing us', 'a curse on both your houses', and other protest signs with rusted nails stuck to rotting wood poles were mixed in with the remains. "There's so many" said Nadine softly, initially trying not to step on anyone's earthly remains. The further from the door they crept the thicker the piles of bones became, until treading on them was unavoidable. Each audible snap evoked a wince from Nadine. Eventually she just closed her eyes and held onto the back of Farnan's plate carrier, trusting him to lead her out of the mausoleum borne from the last panicked moments of hundreds of people's lives before they were snuffed out in an instant by nuclear fire. They reached the rotted wooden gate-like door that covered the end of the tunnel leading from the vault entryway to the next chapter in their lives. "I hope you didn't forget anything" Farnan quipped, and Nadine nearly rose to the bait. "What's every part and person of life as you know it when adventure awaits" she said as stoic as possible, not letting any emotion creep into her voice and not meeting Farnan's eyes. "On the count of three, I'm opening the door, you might want to cover your eyes. One, two..." Nadine pushed past him and booted open the door herself. "Like I'd let you be the first person to walk out of the vault in over two hundred years" she said with a laugh, as she strode out the door. 


	4. Chapter 4

What waited for Farnan and Nadine on the other side of the door was unlike anything they could possibly have imagined or prepared for. White hot roofing nails driven through their eyes and partway down their optic nerves only scratched the surface of the intensity of the agony the two experienced in their first exposure to natural sunlight. "I might have wanted to cover my eyeH, eh" said Nadine as she turned to face the spot she thought Justin was standing in, not wanting to take her hand away from her eyes. "The old leaving the vault video that was part of standard security forces training mentioned there might be a slight adjustment phase to the different intensity of natural light, but this is definitely not the impression I was given" Farnan said, opening his eyes in tiny increments as he adapted to the outdoor light level. It was then that he got his first look around at his surroundings; the light streaming in from above came from a rip in the ceiling of the canvas walled structure covering the entrance into the tunnel. He did a quick listen check, which yielded the rushing and whistling of wind, the creaking of the canvas, and...nothing. Not a chirp of a bird, a sound of an engine, any indications of movement or life or temperature and humidity level in the tent was becoming readily apparent by the beads of perspiration popping up on both his and Nadine's foreheads. "Well, shall we" said Farnan, indicating the open front door of the tent. "I...I went first last time, it's your turn to be the first vault dweller out of the tent." Farnan muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "pussy", and Nadine wound up and smacked him. hard. He stumbled out of the tent, holding the palm shaped welt on his face. She followed, starting to say something about how proper persuasion could work wonders, but when she opened her mouth, it kept opening wider until she was gaping in awe at the scenes of devastation and carnage around her. The first thing she noticed was the grass, or rather the lack of it. There were little charred husks of what might once have been grass, but then burned down to less than an inch high and went from yellow near the tips to brown the closer it got to the ground. This resulted in a field of what looked like dirt with specks of yellow here and there. As she followed the former grass over to a building, she saw that the roof was caved in, and that like most of the buildings in the area, it was composed of red brick with peeling olive drab paint stubbornly clinging to about half of the side. She then noticed the star logo that represented the old U.S. Army on several of them, as well as two rusted out hulks of what might once have been cargo trucks, one of which appeared to be spilling crate stacks from it's bed due to tilting backwards from a long since blown rear tire. "I wonder what's in those crates" Nadine said, indicating the rusting cargo truck. "It's a good bet those aren't girl scout cookies" Farnan said said as he took off towards the boxes. A few minutes of trying to pry the boards loose later, Farnan sat back to pull the splinters out of his hands with his multi-tool. "I don't suppose this might come in handy" Nadine said, producing a claw hammer from her toolbox with a smile and look that were the picture of sugary sweet innocence. Farnan didn't know whether to kiss her or shout something obscene. Eventually choosing a compromise, he hugged her and then took the tool from her, giving her a dirty look that said simultaneously where was this five minutes ago and I'll get you for this. "I had to let you Grognak your way through the problem at least for a little while after you ruined my already bad hair day at dinner last night" she said, pushing a raven black strand behind her ear. Upon hearing the word dinner, both of their stomachs did their best to make their intentions known. Dinner wouldn't be such a bad thing right now would it, they both thought simultaneously. Back in the vault, all that would mean was a quick walk to middle level and whatever was on the menu for the day was theirs for the asking. Out here, wherever here is, Farnan thought bitterly, who knew what or when they would ever eat again. The crate popped open with a squeak of old nail on older wood. Inside, Farnan found a good size handful of 5.56 Nato rounds, most of which had gotten wet and were thus rusted and useless, but he managed to fill two of the empty magazines he also found in the case with what he deemed to be reliable ammunition. Forty eight bullets that I don't have a gun for might not do me much good, but if our luck continues to hold there might be something around here we can do to change that. A piercing scream from Nadine split the air, and Farnan dove over the side of the truck and came up with his pistol ready. Nadine had pried open the drivers side door of the truck before looking inside, and was now locking eyes with the eyesockets of the perfectly preserved skeletal remains of the driver. The arm that had pulled the door closed as the bombs hit was now jostled for the first time in two hundred years, and had landed in a way on top of Nadines such that it appeared to be grabbing her, thus the scream. Taking all this in, Farnan let out a belly laugh as he engaged the safety on his N99 and took a closer look at what just happened. Nadine glared murder, death, and orbital strike bombardment lasers at him simultaneously, then, brushing off the cracking bone fragments, sank to the ground against the side of the truck, letting her terror subside and replacing it with what passed for a laughing sigh of relief. Farnan had a better eye for business, however. "These guys were loaded for bear" he exclaimed as he ran his hands over the shoulder plates of their combat armor and longingly eyed the assault rifles of the four occupants of the extended cab. Three of the four rifle barrels were slagged or rusted through, but when Farnan broke everything from the rifles down he found tha he had enough working, relatively rust free parts to assemble one working rifle. The combat armor was going to be another story. None of the suits were entirely intact, although by picking and choosing plates from all four sets, he was able to piece together a working suit. He pretended not to notice as he snapped bones and slid them out of the arm and leg holes of the suits of armor before breaking those down as well. Mismatched, covered in grime, and showing different patterns of sun bleaching, the final assembly of his armor worked out to cover all the vital areas it was designed to. Farnan was convinced it would stop a bullet, but still wasn't anxious to test his theory. "Sexy" said Nadine after Farnan finished donning the new armor and spun around so she could admire his handiwork. Farnan gave her a rougish grin, and she pretended not to notice. The two of them had been down this road before, once they figured out that boys and girls were different and the birds and bees videos were shown to them in school. Nadine liked him well enough, she just didnt like the fact he was a him. She had known she was different from a young age, but still couldn't bring herself to violate her principles and "do her duty to the vault". Jason had stuck with her since they were children, however, and for that she was eternally grateful. He protected her from the other kids (and mental midgets) who wanted to get rid of her, and from those who couldn't find it in themselves to pass her by without a comment or a giggle or a murmured opinion. Rumors got around that he had "set her straight", which ended in more than a few fistfights, which his quick moves and quicker fists always won for her honor. He didn't seem to mind that she wasn't ever going to sleep with him. There had been other women, he still had the hormones issued to any young man at puberty, but in the end nothing came of it. He was married when he turned twenty to a striking redhead from medical, but after two years of trying they were still childless. Several medical tests and emasculating conversations with Doc later, Jason found out he couldn't have kids. His wife divorced him, and he once again found himself in the group barracks for single men. The bond between Nadine who wouldn't have children, and Farnan who couldn't, was never before stronger than that point. Their relationship developed into a non-sexual partnership, where they became a de-facto couple, even though they were forced to live separately by vault law and weren't acknowledged by any but the most socially progressive or liberal residents. Life went on, and the higher on the ladder they both climbed in their respective careers, the less snickering and murmuring they heard in the corridors. After the long day's work, they hardly had the energy left to do any more searching or talking or even thinking. When the sun set, the whistling of the wind served only to highlight the rapidly falling temperature, and they both walked back to the tent to seek shelter. They had already sorted out the bedrolls and army blankets from the rest of the useless items in the packs of the unfortunate soldiers in the truck, so had already fashioned a crude sleeping surface in their 'shelter'. Farnan told Nadine to take it; he would sleep on the ground. After tossing and turning on the ground for a while trying to get comfortable, Farnan found himself looking at Nadine. She was holding open the edge of the army blanket, indicating Farnan to join her. "You know I've always wanted to sleep with you" he murmured into her ear as he draped his arm over her. "Don't go getting any ideas" she whispered back, snuggling up against him as they both drifted off to sleep. 


	5. Chapter 5

When they awoke the following morning, the sun was already high overhead, casting it's merciless rays down on everything in the wasteland below, Nadine and Farnan being no exception. The heat and humidity were unchanged from the previous day, leading Nadine to remark "I hope this isn't a permanent weather pattern", to which Farnan replied "if this is what happens in a nuclear summer, I'd much prefer a nuclear winter, or I'd settle for a fall." A small chuckle escaped Nadine's lips, but it quickly died when an immediate sense of hunger and thirst overtook her. "When's the last time you ate something, Jason" she asked, and Farnan reflected that it had been more than a day. "About the same time you did" he replied. "Maybe there is a mess hall or cantina or something around here. We'll work off our tab doing dishes or something until we find a way to get some money. With my fighting skills and your..." she glared at him "charming good looks we'll be rolling in Benjamins in no time." "Supposing of course that there are any people left" Nadine said, unsure of what to add to it. For once, she did not have a quick wit or remark to lighten the suddenly somber mood that overtook the two of them. "Well, we can't exactly live out our lives in a tent now, can we" Jason remarked with a shrug, and he started to put his share of their meager belongings into his pack. "Any particular building strike your fancy to have a look into first?" "You mentioned a mess hall. I don't know about you, but I'd like to look around for that first. The manufacturers of most of the food items produced around the time of the war gave their products a shelf life of about a thousand years, so there might be some useful things left there." "I can hardly wait. Two hundred years of post apocalyptic hell shouldn't make whatever we find much different than the crap Andy Handy used to make in the vault" he said with a laugh, which Nadine joined into. They shouldered their packs, and began the trek across the barren parade grounds towards the first brick building across the way. The wind whistled and stirred, causing flakes of olive drab paint to fall around them, but other than that nothing moved. The pair approached the main doors of the building, only to find them locked. "Stand aside, Grognak" Nadine said to Farnan as he started to plant his feet to shoulder slam the door. She pulled a hairpin out of her hair, and a screwdriver out of her toolbox, and set to work probing the lock to find the sweet spot. After a few twists of the screwdriver that failed to open it, a soft click was heard, and the doorknob creaked out it's protest at being disturbed. Dust and debris were dislodged from the doorframe as Farnan opened the door, pulled the charging handle on his rifle and raised it to port arms. The dust of what seemed like millenia coated every surface of the interior of the building. The first desk they came to in the entrance lobby had a Province of New York Flag and an Army flag crossed behind it, several inches of dust, and a chunk of crumbling ceiling plaster that had fallen across the log book. Beneath the crossed flags were the words U.S. Army Munitions Disposal Command in 6 inch high brass letters. Farnan brushed off the debris and picked up the log book, scanning through the entries for anything of interest. "It says here that the base was re-aligned after that closing of the Alaska campaign. Lots of visits by West Tek, Winchester Arms and other hardware manufacturers in the years leading up to the closure though. Lots of labor bringing heavy crates in, but hardly any crates going out. This could be interesting." "Or it could mean that this place was a disposal site for unusable ammunition" Nadine said, rolling her eyes. As they stared across the pages of the log book, a sound of movement was heard coming from around the corner. A mechanical whir-chunk, whir-chunk was approaching! The glowing dome and body lights of an Army Protectron rounded the corner, and it's halting, raspy mechanical voice called out "Hold...it...right ...there" while orienting it's body towards Nadine and Farnan. Nadine put her hand over Farnan's rapidly rising service rifle, stopping him from introducing it's face to a few rounds of burst fire. "I think I can shut it down, you don't have to destroy it" she said, as she darted into a side passageway. "Distract it so I can get around behind it. The power switch is located next to it's combat inhibitor. Think of all the things we could do with our own robot. It's functions include heavy load lifting, factory work, fine manipulation skills, security patrol, it was used in museums, subways, police forces, and military applications as you can see here." "I hope it wasn't too popular with the Army, even you could outrun it or dodge out of the way." The glare from the previous day briefly flitted across Nadine's features. "I'll let that one go once you apologize after you see what I can do with it once I reprogram it. And for your information we'll probably be encountering these in lots of military bases. Robco, the manufacturer, had a contract with them for hundreds of thousands of units. Even though they suck, they were cheaper than a soldier, and you know how defense budgets go." Don't I ever, thought Farnan. "How far apart are these military bases we're going to be encountering all over the place? Something tells me the subways or busses aren't still running on schedule." "Shut it. You're just grumpy because so far brains have soundly beaten brawn every single challenge we've encountered." Farnan started to protest, but as he did he found another piece of splinter lodged in the sleeve of his combat armor. He picked it out and tossed it aside, sticking out his tongue at Nadine as he did. The protectron was advancing all this time on Farnan, who, having a loaded assault rifle, was obviously the greatest threat. "Just distract it for a few seconds longer, while I..." The protectron's dome changed color from yellow to red, and it shouted "hostile...detected" followed by "firing...weapons". Electronic noises could be heard from inside the dome, but all that came out of the laser projector were sparks. "Malfunction...  
>detected...engaging...secondary...weapons systems" it droned, bringing it's arms up to firing positions. Two needle sized beams of bright red coherent light shot out of the protectron's 'hands', missing Farnan by a wide margin. The protectron recalculated it's aim, and canted it's weapons slightly downward and to the side. Not on your life Farnan thought, and raised his weapon to his shoulder. Nadine darted out from the side passage and made a mad grab for the combat inhibitor control box once the first discharge was complete. A quick burst from Farnan's rifle removed the right arm of the protectron, just as Nadine found the power switch and flicked it to the off position. The red dome light winked out, and the remaining arm dropped to it's side. "Whew, that was close" Nadine called out, wiping sweat from her brow and sitting down on a nearby desk. Farnan engaged the safety on his rifle, slung it onto his back, and walked over to the now silent, motionless machine. "Not so tough now, are you tin man" he said, rapping his knuckles on the armored plate. "Shall I turn it back on so you two can get all the testosterone out of your systems before we carry on" she asked? "Very funny" he replied, walking over to where she was sitting. "What do we need to get this bucket of bolts back into working order and" he looked at the laser projectors "not trying to deep fry us." "well, I left my circuit probes and data terminal in my other vault suit, so acquiring those would get us off to a good start" she said, looking around at the rest of the room for the first time. They were in an office, composed primarily of desks with blown out computer terminals, but one still stubbornly clung to life, in all it's green screened text only glory. Covered in dust and grime, it clearly showed that it had been topside for centuries with no maintenance, but still appeared to be at least minimally functional. "Check your six" Farnan said, pointing to the faintly glowing screen. "I'll handle this and try to strike up a productive conversation with our friend here, you go on ahead and see if you can find us anything to eat. "I think Grognak can handle that one" Farnan tossed over his shoulder as he put the fresh clip into his rifle and moved out with his weapon at low ready. He continued down the hall, past piles of rubble and debris from collapsed walls or bits of ceiling until he reached what looked to be an intact staircase. "Excelsior" he muttered, mounting the stairs and shaking his head. <div> 


	6. Chapter 6

Halfway up the stairs, Farnan found a first aid box with a stimpack and two bottles of water. Helping himself to the contents, he closed the box and took it off the wall, dropping it to show he had already emptied it. As the box clattered down the stairs, Nadine shouted "can't you do anything quietly" to which he responded, shouting at the top of his lungs "THIS IS MY INSIDE VOICE." When he reached the top of the stairs, he could see that much of the roof was indeed missing. Entering the hallway, he walked over to some rusted metal shelves, opening the toolboxes on them and finding a fission battery and a sensor module. Not sure what I'm going to do with these yet, but I'm sure they'll come in handy he thought, slipping them into the large pocket of his pack after wrapping the battery in some sheets of paper he found on a desk. After doing a double take, he noticed the fading red Top Secret stamp at the top right corner of the page. He unwrapped the bundle and started to read. Hexadecimal sequences were arranged in neat rows, and a picture of a Delta IX nuclear missile surrounded by the words Strategic Air Command was centered at the top. Red lines were drawn through all but two of the entries. If this is what I think it is, I'll never let her live down MY great discovery. She thinks a couple of laser pistols on a securitron are a lot of firepower, I wonder what her face will look like when I show her the codes to level a province he thought as he carefully folded the extremely aged paper into one of his storage compartments. Reflexively he dropped into a crouch behind the desk as he heard a faint whooshing noise and the sound of mechanical arms moving in the next room, crunching on the bones of the former occupant. Well, shit thought Farnan as he dropped the battery and unslung his rifle. "Ready to die for your country, you commie son of a bitch" called out a mechanical, military sounding voice, as the whooshing and mechanical thrust compensator noise slowly moved closer. Nadine frowned at the terminal. She had opened it up, and run it through every subroutine she could think of to get it to cry uncle, but all she was able to get out of the computer was a try again screen, a threat to lock up, and a firewall you could fit Texas behind. "Mother Fucker" she shouted, throwing up her hands in disgust and closing the terminal. Apparently whoever had set up this network knew a trick or two she didn't, which was possible since they were around to chat with Robco, while she was born two hundred plus years after everyone associated with them was dead. The high level of security did raise the question what was hiding on this network that was so valuable on a munitions disposal base. Destruction of nonfunctional or obsolete ammunition wasn't exactly a national secret. She swept everything but the computer terminal off the desk with her left arm, satisfying her frustration with the destruction of the nearly intact, orderly organization of the top surface of the desk. Those things survived a nuclear war but I still got them she thought as she sat in the chair and put her head down. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the bottom of the pencil holder, which had the word 'knockers' crudely scratched onto it. "Leave it to the army to invent a top rate security system and some private writes down the password on a pencil can. And of all the things to use as a password." She quickly restarted the terminal, typed in the password, and pressed enter. An almost happy soundidng beep accompanied hard drive noises as the terminal finished it's boot sequence. It presented her with it's main menu. There were three options to choose from, including personnel files, a map of the base (which she downloaded to her pip boy), and a top secret file marked Strategic Air Command. Overcome with curiosity, she clicked on the SAC option and was taken to another page, which included a link to the base's Delta IX Missile Command Console! Two of the most powerful engines of destruction created in human history were shown to still be in their silos, awaiting command activation codes, the rest having been launched during the two fateful hours of the great war of mankind's suicide. Wait until Jason finds out that I have two working nuclear missiles once I figure out the command codes she mused, a grin slowly creeping over her face as she envisioned the raw destructive fury that waited a mere tap of a button. Sure it would take a while to hack, but they didn't seem to be going anywhere for a while. She (mostly) fought down the cartoon villain grin and hand-wringing that comes with realization of posession of the ultimate weapon.  
>Farnan crept slowly towards the hallway, careful not to make a sound. Stealth cost him speed, however, and he was rapidly running out of time before he would have to make a run for it. "I can't wait to find you Commie, so I can kill you as a personal favor to Uncle Sam" the mechanical drill sargeant voice called out, jetting around trying to get a fix on Farnan's Position. He continued towards the door, but as he was working his was around the corner of the doorframe to the hall he came in from so he could go further into the building to draw it away from Nadine, he crunched over a piece of fallen plaster. "Shit" he hissed out between his teeth. He took off at a run further into the building. Ducking into another room that branched off the hallway, Farnan spied several ammunition boxes on a set of metal shelves. Next to those were two fragmentation grenades. Two odd looking gray cylinders with a purple dome on one end and a rotary switch on the other grabbed his attention as well. 'EMP-do not use near computer equipment or power armor' was stamped along the side of the cylinder. Thank my lucky stars Farnan thought, looking over the loot. Those will do nicely to help me sort out my current dilemma. Something about this situation didn't smell right. Gas! Jason stepped up to a hole in the wall where he could see down into the next lower level, and saw that even after all these years there was still a gas pipe that had broken loose during the war with a fuel supply that hadn't been exhausted yet. Surveying the opening, it was about a ten foot drop onto some relatively flat concrete, something a roll would help absorb the shock of. It definitely wouldn't be terminal, but it would still hurt like hell. "Hey shithead" he yelled out to the robot "I'm over here." He then swung out over the edge through the hole in the destroyed wall, and let himself drop.<br>Nadine finished pulling yet another wire out of the back of a destroyed desktop computer, completing her list of scavengable parts she would need for the protectron hack. Luckily Robco standardized all of it's data interfaces, and through looting of most of the terminals had come up with enough compatible plugs, jacks, and data port interfaces to make it possible to talk with the robot's AI. She had started work on a virus that would wipe all the attack commands off of it's memory banks, but in the process of writing it changed course, shaking her head at the simplicity of the more profitable course of action. She changed the identifying information for the owners of the robot from the U.S. Army to her and Jason, thus leaving it's capabilities intact and avoiding the possibility of doing any irreparable damage that there were no longer replacement operating system holotapes or repair centers to fix. That just left replacing the right arm, which was completely destroyed and would need a new sensor module, fission battery, and focusing rig for it's laser pistol. The Wattz 1000 in it's head was totally lost, and would require a suitable replacement. Still, smaller weapons were better than none at all, and as long as they didn't run into anything that a laser pistol or assault rifle couldn't handle they would be alright. There probably weren't any surface dwelling survivors anyways, so their survival and rebuilding of humanity was going to need all the robotic help it could get. "It does figure that I made all those snappy comebacks to people in the vault that it wasn't like I was the last woman on earth and he was the last man" she said to no one in particular, looking down and sighing as she turned back to the open access panel of the protectron. I hope Jason hurries up with that food and water, she thought, as her stomach did another repetition of the now familiar growl that it used to protest it's lack of contents.  
>Jason hit the ground running, hurrying to an overturned desk located across the room and diving behind it, curling up and making sure all his extremities were behind the barrier that the wooden surface of the desk could provide. A green ball with too many hands and glowing yellow 'eyes' floated over to the edge of the hole in the wall, it's engine holding it just over the spot he had left one of the frag grenades, and less than 6 inches from the exposed pipe still issuing forth the explosive gas that would spell it's doom. Please don't be a dud, please don't be a dud he thought, crossing his fingers as he raised his head above the surface of the desk for a fraction of a second, before ducking back down and stuffing his fingers in his ears. "I've got you now" the machine called out in a much deeper, differently dubbed vocalization. A bolt of green plasma soared across the gap and vaporised a hole in the wall above him, just as the grenade went off. The robot had just enough time to turn around and shout "what" as it caught the force of the natural gas powered explosion. A fiery burst expanded outward from the pipe and enveloped the robot, ripping through it like a sledgehammer going through a wet paper bag. The severed flamethrower fuel tanks caught fire, rolling away and spilling a trail of flames that marked their passage. Fragments from the grenade and Mr. Gutsy thudded into the wood of the desk at irregular intervals. Despite it's age, the desktop held up impressively well, Farnan thought. He opened the drawers, and found some more papers, mostly administrative junk, a locked steel box with rounded corners and a scene from a tropical island machined into the front, and a laser pistol. The ammo level lights didn't even come on, indicating the energy cells within had long since died, but the weapon might be serviceable if replacements could be found. He put the weapon into a storage compartment on his belt. Farnan waited until a count of five after all the bits and pieces stopped raining down from the explosion to emerge from his temporary shelter and see what he had accomplished. The walls of the room he found himself in were scorched, and there was a crack leading outward from the source of the explosion. He watched as pieces of the walls on the upper level started to move, cracking and splintering, until they started to collapse all around him. Nadine finished with the protectron AI, and as she was removing the cable leads she felt before she heard the explosion further inside the building. "Jasonnnn" she shouted, flicking the Protectron's power switch. "Startup...complete, loading primary AI...complete. Attempting connection to U.S. Army servers...ERROR. Attempting connection to public servers...ERROR. Upon noticing Nadine, it said "Law abiding citizens have nothing to fear. Identify yourself." "My name is Nadine Torelli, your new owner." "State the reason this unit has been discharged from Active Duty." "Because the world is over. Nuclear war has destroyed both the United States and China, and there no longer is a U.S. Army" "Probability of the U.S. being destroyed, zero percent. Your statements are in ERROR. You are under arrest. Further attempts at resistance..." Nadine flipped the power switch even faster this time, being more familiar with the holes in the robot's defensive capabilities posed by not being able to orient itself towards an opponent to it's rear in time to defend it's controls. We'll get no help from this hunk of junk she thought, sprinting by the once again inert form shouting "I'm coming Jason!" <div> 


	7. Chapter 7

Without thinking, Farnan dodged pieces of crumbling drywall as they fell, using the cat-like reflexes that got him his vault security job to begin with. His keen observational skills showed him which pieces were about to fall, and he sidestepped, dodged, or jumped out of the way of what seemed an endless series of falling bits of building playing out in slow motion. As he worked his way towards what he thought was the door out of the room, a section of drywall caught him from behind, pinnig him down by his legs while more bits of cinderblock and rubble fell behind it, creating a load even his powerful limbs couldn't break free of. "I survived the monsters, a nuclear meltdown, army attack robots, Nadine's mouth, and now a collapsing building cheap shots me from behind? Really?" He tried pulling himself out by seal walking, but the screams of protest from his right leg didn't make that seem to be a realistic possibility. He then set to work pushing pieces of rubble off of himself, but as he was trapped facedown and unable to turn over he wasn't able to get good enough leverage on the pieces that counted to make any headway. Using a small rock, he started chipping away at some cinderblocks behind him, but after several minutes of furiously working, coupled with the lack of food or water in the last two days, he was not able to make any real progress. Feeling his strength fading, he put all his power into the loudest shout he was able to make. "NADINE" he shouted with all his might "I'm trapped. Get that bucket of bolts to come dig me out." Hearing his shouts, and following the trail of fresh white powder and rubble that was on top of the layer of dust, she turned at the stairs but didn't ascend. Instead she saw Jason's face, covered in chalk and debris, and his arms holding rocks trying to hit them against the huge burden on his back. If I don't get him out of there soon he'll be crushed she thought. Approaching him, she bent over him and started frantically trying to dig him out. "I'll have you out of here in no time" she reassured him, bending down to hug him. "Thanks" Farnan strained out, bracing himself against the weight that threatened to be the end of him. She soon discovered that the Army built things with real stone and real blocks, not the flimsy pasteboard and wooden frames that most civilian contractors used. "I can't do it, I'm not strong enough, but I know someone who can" she said, running her hand through Farnan's hair and freeing his face of the white dust. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Just hold in there big guy." "Don't worry, I'll be right here when you get back" Farnan said as she sprinted away towards the protectron. She wrenched open the access panel and looked around frantically for anything that would spell the answer to her problems. Her eyes came to rest on the personality module, which bore a chip that obviously didn't come from the factory, as it was composed of olive drab plastic and had a white star covering it's surface. She yanked it out, closed the panel, and flicked the power switch. It ran through it's power on self test routine, then turned to face her and said "shall...we...play...a...game?" Unbelievable thought Nadine, but without missing a beat said "No. state your designation and who you belong to. "IMSAI 8080, owned by Nadine Torelli and Jason Farnan." "Jason is in danger of termination by a collapsed wall, clear the wreckage." "Carrying out orders" said the Protectron as it walked down the hall and started warming up it's hand lasers. It used them to clear away the larger bits of debris faster than Nadine could have done half as much, and by the time she ordered it to stop firing, much of the pieces that would have required heavy lifting were now much smaller pieces. "IMSAI, refrain from discharging weapons for the remainder of the operation. Clear debris manually." "Carrying out orders" the robot said, as it began picking up large chunks of block and hurling them against the wall, smashing them to bits. Within the space of a few minutes it had disposed of the heavy blocks, rocks, and debris, which allowed Nadine and Farnan to clear away much of what remained pinning him to the ground. "I can't move my right leg" Farnan said to Nadine, as she went to pull him up. "There's a stimpack in the top pouch of my pack, hopefully it didn't break when the walls, came crumbling down." "Holding out on me, were you" she asked with a playful smirk, indicating she wasn't serious. "You know me, always keeping the best bits for myself" Jason said as he crawled forward bit by painful bit. Nadine got out the (mercifully) intact stimpack and disconnected the plates from Jason's right leg armor. "This might hurt a bit, so I'll give you to the count of three to brace yourself. One, two" she jabbed the needle into the part of his leg he was favoring and pressed the plunger "three." Jason started to protest, but the relief flooding into his leg silenced any sounds he might have made at her trick. The bones seemed to be setting themselves and healing at an exponential rate. Whatever was in those stimpacks once again worked their magic, turning what might have been a lifelong debilitating injury into mere moments of inconvenience. "I say the first thing we do when we get topside is get production of those things running again. They're bound to come in handy sooner or later." "True" she said. "I can't always be here to back you up or watch out for you." Farnan gave her a glare and started to protest, before looking at the collapsed room around him and at the white dust and bits of debris that still clung to his armor and pack. "Yeah well" he said, taking out a bottle of water and tossing half of it back in one swig. "Hey, don't hog it all. The rest of us want some too" Nadine protested, reaching out for the bottle. Farnan produced the other bottle from his pack and handed it to her.  
> <div> 


	8. Chapter 8

Farnan led the way out of the now mostly collapsed building, his rifle at port arms. They crossed the charred grass to a quonset hut, and stopped outside the door at the near end. "We should send clunky in there to clear the room. He's expendable" Farnan said, gettting a scowl from Nadine. "Just because you're right, you don't have to say it" she replied. "Master of the obvious, that's me" Farnan said as he moved towards the robot. "Clear the building" he said, slowly and deliberately to ensure he was understood. "Orders received...and...understood. Scanning...for...enemies" droned out the protectron as Farnan kicked in the door and quickly backed out of the way. When the dust settled in the doorway, the robot rotated left and right, scanning for motion and weapons. Finding none, it walked into the room to start a physical search. Several minutes passed by, during which the protectron droned out several of it's search routine phrases before clanking against the far door frame. "Sounds good to me" Farnan said as he brought his weapon down to low ready and entered the building. More of the dust of ages coated everything in the room. The bunks were arranged in neat rows with a dusty wooden case at the foot of each bed. The beds were all neatly made, and showed only a small degree of wear and age. A quick search of all the beds and trunks turned up a handful of doses of Rad-X and Rad Away, 4 more water bottles, fresh(er) blankets, and a skeleton still wearing combat medic armor. This was quickly removed from it's former occupant, and with a grimace Nadine tried it on. It fit surprisingly well, as the plates were shaped for a woman. "Do I have tooo" she implored to Jason, looking more than slightly disgusted at wearing something that someone who died 200 years ago had on until just now. "Yes. We don't know what's out there and if you have to take a hit I'd rather you have something a little tougher than vault suit between the round and anything you want to keep." As much as she wanted to argue that, she couldn't, and grudgingly fell into step behind Farnan as he crossed to the far side where the Protectron waited. They split their new posessions as evenly as possible, and shouldered their packs once again. "After you" Farnan said, holding open the door for Nadine. "Much obliged, good sir" Nadine replied, walking out the door into the bright sunlight. It took a moment to adjust, but it wasn't nearly as painful a transition as the first time. They cleared two more quonset huts in this manner, gaining a good size handful of radiation drugs, rounded out their collection of water bottles at 10, and finally found their greatest prize of all. Someone had stashed a cache of fancy lads snack cakes under a pillow in the last bunk of the third hut. They tore into the carton with abandon, putting 3 of the four packages away in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, without warning, a queasy and burning feeling overcame them, and they had to fight down the urge to hurl it all back up. "They aren't spoiled" Farnan said, showing the still moist and chewy bits which clung to the wrapper. "Must be the rads" Nadine said, noticing for the first time how her pip boy's geiger counter jumped slightly when it got closer to the package. "Do you think we should take some of the Rad Away, Doc" Farnan asked. "This low dose isn't lethal, but we should consider popping a Rad-X pill before we shovel large quantities of radioisotopes into our faces in the future." "Sounds like a plan. We've got enough of those to feed an army." "They WERE here to feed an army." "Yeah well..." Let's get going. The rest of this place isn't going to explore itself."  
>After leaving the last of the row of huts that formed the enlisted barracks, they made their way over to a surprisingly normal looking house, with a white star composed of shingles on the roof side facing the dirt road. "Must have belonged to the Commanding Officer" Farnan said, shielding his eyes from the sun to make out the white star. Should be some good stuff inside." Nadine and Farnan moved up to the front porch fo the house, but Farnan put out his arm and stopped Nadine, an instant before she snapped a tripwire that was strung across the bottom stair leading to the front door. "Lucky glance is all that was" she said, but her smile and sigh of relief were more than enough thanks. "Ok we're even" she said, looking over at Jason with a smile. "What about the Grognak bit" he replied, smiling as well. He had to rub it in when he could, because the frequency with which he got the upper hand was (admittedly) not as high as she did. "Fine, the Grognak bit too. Growl, roar, manly man etc, etc." She stood up and pantomimed swinging a great axe and chopping off the heads of imagined knights and men-at-arms. "Happy" she said. "Yep" he replied. "Grognak strong, Grognak smash, Grognak save you from trap." He opened the top pocket on her pack, and started to dig around. After several seconds, he threw up his hands and said "how do you find anything in this mess." "What do you need" she asked. "Wire cutter" he said, and held out his hand. She reached back and fumbled for about three seconds, before handing him the tool, needle-nose first. "I don't even want to know how you did that" he said, rolling his eyes as he grabbed the tool and dropped to a crouch to examine the trap. "Tsk-tsk" he said, "not a very impressive setup" he said. He maneuvered the wire cutter around the cable, and with a quick snip and a twist of the tool, the wire snapped and a grenade cluster fell out from under the step. All three pin rings were attached to the small end of the wire Farnan just cut. He reached down and picked up the grenades, carefully sliding the wire through the rings and then putting the grenades into their easy access points on his belt. He stood up, and happened to be silhouetted against the front of the house with the white star in view. Nadine burst out laughing, and said "You look like a poster boy for the old U.S. Army. Combat armor, loaded ammo pouches, grenades, canteen, an assault rifle, and a hot nurse by your side." "I can't seem to find the hot nurse" Farnan replied with a grin. Nadine playfully punched his shoulder and pulled her hairpin out to try the lock. It proved more resistant than the personnel office however, and after several frustrated minutes she stopped playing around with the doorknob and looked around sheepishly. Farnan stood up and said "And that's my cue." He unslung his rifle, sighted down the barrel and sent a burst into the lock and a burst into the frame housing the bolt. He then stretched his legs, rolled his neck, and cracked his knuckles. Taking a step back, he took in a deep breath, let half of it out, and roundhouse kicked the door down. Splinters and fragments flew across the house's living room, and the door crashed against the wall behind it. "This was the commanding officer's house" Farnan said, surveying the living room with it's ironing board, broken tv, empty bookshelves, and empty fish tank. The ironing board held a gray overcoat with two stars on both shoulders. Farnan folded up the coat and put it in his pack. "Might come in handy later. Besides, I bet it would look good on me. I earned my stars back in the vault, so it's not like I'm assuming false rank." "Sounds impressive, General Farnan" Nadine replied. They walked into the adjoining room and found a kitchen sink, a gas range built into the countertop, and a dust covered refrigerator. Shelves with dishes lined the walls. Farnan and Nadine both reached for the refrigerator at the same time, then looked at eachother. "Do you think we should" Nadine asked? "Who knows what might be in there. Two hundred years of mold and growth and whatnot could even be sentient by now." "I'll do it" Farnan said. He slung his rifle back over his shoulder, but drew his sidearm and chambered a round before wrenching open the door. A perfectly preserved (it was even still shrink wrapped) 24 pack of beer, along with 6 Nuka Cola classic's and a bottle of Quantum tucked in behind the 6 pack carrier. "Score" called out Nadine, grabbing the handle of the Nuka Cola carrier. The rime of frost prevented it from budging, however. "That's still cold" she exclaimed, pulling her hand back and jumping out of the way. The entire preserved collection was indeed in it's element, still ice cold and awaiting a thirsty officer who passed away more than 200 years ago. "Well, we know it's still good then, or as good as it possibly could be. That Nuka Cola probabaly still has the frosty bottle opening effect. Care to try it?" Farnan pulled a bottle out of the frost, handed it to Nadine, and extracted another for himself. They twisted the caps off and clinked the necks together before tossing back a healthy gulp. After packing up their finds from the kitchen, they headed down the short hallway from the living room to the house's modest bedroom. The bed was made in immaculate order with crisp corners on the sheets and the top of the cover turned down. What they found as their eyes traveled across the bed wasn't so cheerful however. The preserved skull of the house's former owner, minus a large hole in the temple, grinned up at them from empty eyesockets. His weapon was still clutched in the bony remains of his hand, pointed where it was the last time it was fired. The weapon was a custom gold-plated .44 magnum, with Strategic Air Command engraved on the barrel and white mother-of-pearl stars inlaid in the polished mahagony grips. Farnan pried it loose from the finger bones, and checked the cylinder. "Five shots left, and they seem to be in good condition. Should probably try it out just to be sure." "I think that gun has been 'tried out' enough already" Nadine said darkly, facing the other way and lowering her voice. It was then that she noticed the closet door standing open. In addition to a small number of uniforms on hangars, she made out the right side of what looked like a safe set into the wall. "Jason, look in the closet, I think it's a safe." They went over to the closet and pulled all the clothes off the hangars and threw them on the bed, doing their best to be respectful when covering the remains of the general. The safe didn't have a dial combination that they could try, but instead a keyhole. Nadine got out her trusty hairpin and started to fiddle with the lock, but realized right away that she wasn't going to be making any progress. "We need a key" she said over her shoulder to Farnan, who shook his head and sighed. "I'll bet I know who has it" he said, nodding to the skeleton. "Flip you for it" Nadine said, pulling out the cap from her Nuka Cola bottle. "Ok, you're on" he said, as she flipped the cap into the air with her thumb. "I call the rubber side" Farnan said, before Nadine had a chance to say anything. The cap landed with the Nuka side down, thus declaring Farnan the winner. "Damn" Nadine said, reaching for the edge of the blanket. She cringed at having to do this, but stoicly pulled it back and flung it across the room. She turned away while searching the uniform pockets, but eventually came up with the key. "Don't ever make me do that again" she said to Farnan, who simply nodded. He took the key and walked over to the wall safe. It opened with a creak of protesting metal, to reveal several stacks of money, a binder (which looked suspiciously like the point of origin for the folded piece of paper in his front pocket), 2 boxes of 12 .44 rounds, and a boxed collection of the many different Nuka Cola caps that had been issued since the company started. "That's a lot of different caps" Nadine said, taking the box from Farnan and adding hers to the collection. "I have to save theis one because it's the first time you beat me in...well anything" she said with a smile as she closed the small box and put it in her pack. Farnan counted out the money, and distributed it as evenly as possible. "That's about eighty grand a piece" he said, "told you we'd be rolling in Benjamins in no time." Nadine stuck out her tongue at him, as she put her money in a small side pocket of her pack. They left the house without another word. While they were walking, Farnan spied a door with what looked like a pocked and tattered Nuka Break poster plastered onto the side. The door handles also appeared to be made of bottles, one amber colored and one clear green. The amber bottle appeared to have once been a beer, and Farnan thanked his lucky stars, almost weeping with joy. Nadine had been talking the whole time, but he had stoped listening, and by this point even walking. "And that's when the spider jumped out of the cake" Nadine said, coming to a stop and turning to face him, indignation at being ignored glaringly obvious on her features. "Are you even listening to me" she asked, extending her right arm and putting her finger right under Farnan's nose. His thousand yard stare was soon followed by Nadine, who turned on her heel and and gaped at the wonderous sight of the post cantina. It almost seemed to acquire a corona or a halo, and they both ran up to the doors and tried to pry them open. Farnan got ready to knock the door down, and for once, Nadine didn't argue, simply stepping out of the way. Farnan put two shots into the lock, and then booted the door down. It came off it's rusty age worn hinges, landing with a dusty crash inside the building, followed by "put...down...your...weapons...and...submit...to...authority..." just as two needle sized beams and a larger, darker red beam shot out in his direction. Nadine had just enough time to cry out as Farnan hit the ground with three smoking holes in his torso. <div> 


End file.
